Following on from their whitewash of the VICTOR Oceania Junior Championship finals, the New Zealand team have once again showed their ascendancy, this time in the Junior Team event, winning all 5 ties and dropping just one match.
The blemish in the otherwise perfect campaign comes courtesy of runner-up Australia, with Victoria He and Jodee Vega managing to secure a two-game win over New Zealand’s Sally Fu and Tamara Otene in the girls’ doubles. With New Zealand’s win in this tie, the final placings were all but confirmed, with one round still to play, following Tahiti’s earlier defeat to Australia.
On the final session of play, New Zealand proved too strong for Tahiti, and Australia were comfortable in their win over New Caledonia 1. The final match saw a spirited battle between Fiji and New Caledonia 2, with both team showing excellent improvement over the competition period.
Final placings: 1st New Zealand, 2nd Australia, 3rd Tahiti, 4th New Caledonia 1, 5th Fiji, 6th New Caledonia 2.
While the players were the main focus over the 10 days, beginning with the Casa Del Sole Noumea International, and finishing with the VICTOR Oceania Junior Team Championships, it was also a valuable opportunity to train and assess a number of local technical officials.
Badminton Oceania is pleased to announce the following umpires have been awarded the Pacific Accredited Qualification:
Agnes Bourdelois (NCL), Merinda Herlin (NCL), Johanna Kou (NCL), Jean Claude Yagues (NCL) and Nicolas Mouret (TAH).
The presentations wrapped up with a nice surprise for a number of players who, unbeknownst to them, had been assessed during the week for their Pacific Accredited Line Judge Qualification. Badminton Oceania congratulates the following players, and hopes that this may be the first step for some to begin their journey to becoming a technical official:
Carmen Loo (FJI), Chang Ho Kim (FJI), Clement Cazautet (NCL), Dgeniva Matauli (NCL), Ewen LeMercier (NCL), Fred Bailly (NCL), Gabriel Vallette (NCL), Guillermo Buisson (NCL), Gwenaelle Timole (NCL), Justin Tang (FJI), Liam Fong (FJI), Marine Naveros (NCL), Monica Chan (FJI), Nathan Nicole (NCL), Noah Michel (NCL), Ronan Ho-Yagues (NCL), Sidney Tokarski (NCL), Sonali Kumar (FJI), Sristi Nadan (FJI), Tiphaine Tamole (NCL) and Bryan Nicole (NCL).
The final presentation of the afternoon was for the Rhonda Cator Sportsmanship Trophy, awarded by the referees, to Gwenaelle Timole of New Caledonia.
If you missed any of the badminton action, you can rewatch matches from the live stream at http://bit.ly/OceaniaLive
